


A Pouch of Yellow Leaves

by treefrogie84



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bobby and Rufus are background only, Eldritch, Fae & Fairies, Wrestling, i learned way to much about wrestling for this, many apologies to both Shakespeare and Neil Gaiman, winchester house as an eldritch being
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-23 18:35:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14939661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: With a major event this week, Craig has no time for incompetents who draw hunters down on her organization.





	A Pouch of Yellow Leaves

**Author's Note:**

> First things first: if you recognize it, it doesn't belong to me. Mustard Seed and Robin belong to (for the sake of this conversation) William Shakespeare and Neil Gaiman. Title is from Gaiman's Sandman: A Midsummer's Night Dream. Winchester Mystery House as an eldritch being was stolen from [Seperis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/seperis/pseuds/seperis)'s [Down to Agincourt](https://archiveofourown.org/series/110651) series. I stole it with the best of intentions and have no intention of keeping it.  
> Second of all: many thanks to [Tryslora](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tryslora/works) for reading over this and reassuring me that I wasn't too far up my own ass. Also to my roommates and gaming friends who let me make fun of their wrestling special for 5 freaking hours while I worked on this thing in the corner.

Mustard Seed blows in through the office door, allowing the clammy dark of Winchester House to leak in with him. He doesn’t bother to wait for acknowledgement before dropping into the chair and glaring across the desk at her. “You have to do something about Robin.”

Craig barely glances up before refocusing on the slips of paper she’s using to organize tomorrow night’s bouts. Aurora fought Stigthogath last month-- and nearly destroyed the western seaboard while they were at it-- so maybe Aurora against Tannic and then the Twins against--

“Boss!” The sharp burn of mustard fills Craig’s office, making her cough. House grumbles too, the floor rocking sharply in something that might be a cough. “Robin. Do something.”

“Promotion is your department,” she says absently, scribbling a note to herself about bringing Dodomeki over from Japan for Tannic next month. “Which makes Robin your responsibility.”

“This isn’t a promotions problem,” Mustard Seed snaps. “This is a ‘Robin is a fucking lunatic and bringing hunters down on us’ problem.”

House rumbles around them, seawater overpowering the mustard burn and Craig’s preferred leather and sweat. The carpet under her feet is suddenly sodden and starting to float. There are downsides to having their offices and arena _inside_ their host.

“Oh-kay,” Craig says, doing her best to ignore how the bottoms of her feet are starting to burn in the salt water. “What’s Robin doing?”

Mustard Seed snorts, rearranging to sit cross legged in the chair. “He’s stocking the afterparty.” A beat when Craig says nothing. “Robin knows Devorar Al Nino is coming. Fifteen babies and toddlers have gone missing in the last two days and did I mention _there are hunters in town_?”

“Licinda’s a vegetarian! What the hell do we need babies for?”

“ _Li_ is. Devorar… eats them dawn and dusk.” Mustard Seed glances down over the arm of his chair. She’s not sure what he sees there, but she can feel wildlife circling her appendages.

“I will never understand why Oberon kept Robin around.” Craig carefully hides the wince as a man of war jellyfish swims by, dragging its tentacles past her legs and feet. If she doesn’t get their host calmed back down, this could go very poorly indeed. “Alright. You… deal with this.” She waves around the office, pushing the cards towards him. “I’m gonna go deal with everything else.”

The skin on her legs sloughs off as she walks through the knee deep water, showing parts of her below the glamour, dozens of sickly orange and neon blue tentacles pushing through the sea. One flicks out as she reaches the doorway, dragging a brightly colored fish towards her and disappearing under her clothing. Craig pats the damp dark stone of their host’s walls in thanks before heading up to the public levels of the house.

 

* * *

 

The hunters are easy enough to find-- they never learn the meaning of discretion-- and it’s even easier to assume Robin’s glamour and lead them to the condemned apartment building he is using.

Winchester House has been their most accommodating host in centuries. She will not allow Robin to put that relationship at risk just because he’s lost track of the different between kayfabe and reality.

Robin has another child in his hands when Craig catches up with him, staring at it curiously before leaning over and licking its forehead. “You don’t taste of _anything_ ,” he tells the toddler seriously, ignoring its cries. “Devorar deserves only the best. And you’re not it.”

Craig snaps a tentacle free of her glamour, wrapping around Robin and pushing him away from the child. It drops and cries harder, but doesn’t appear to be suffering from any permanent damage. Even if it does, what is it to her? “Robin, what are you doing?”

He turns his head, rapidly flickering through glamours. “Find morsels for the afterparty,” Robin’s voice rises in an uncanny mimicry of her own. “Meat and bread, milk and honey, wine and beer.”

Shedding her own glamour, Craig stares him down. “A simple enough list for Oberon’s trusted.”

Robin sneers at her, dispelling his glamour. Hard, chitinous skin pushes outward against her tentacle, pulsing red veins running through it. He starts to push away from the wall, the drywall buckling behind him.

Footsteps echo through the cement staircase and the quiet murmur of the hunters. The toddler chooses that moment to start screaming again and the footsteps break into a run.

Releasing Robin, Craig turns and dives out a broken window, hiding herself behind the image of a young punk strolling down the street, heavy boots and orange spiked hair.

There’s a flurry of gunfire behind her, several stories up, and a dry thud that heralds Robin’s body landing on the concrete behind her. Craig forces herself to turn around and look up, memorizing the faces of the young hunters that peer out the window.

“Why’d you do that, Bobby?” The darker one asks peevishly. “It wasn’t dead enough for you?”

“It’s a giant bug, Rufus. Smash and let it go.”

“Right. Because we didn’t need to know where the other kids are or anything.”

Craig frowns and makes a mental note to make sure the children get dropped off somewhere obvious, far enough from their host to not draw attention to them.

Turning on her heel, she heads back towards Winchester House and her office. She has work to do.

 

* * *

 

The lights go back down as the pixies finish cleaning the Twins’ slime from the ramp and signal the MC. Craig can barely see Licinda in the wings, tightening her mask and glamour before shaking herself and becoming fully her persona.

Mustard Seed ducks back into the ring, effortlessly projecting his voice to announce the title match while couple of minor horrors project the hype reel into everyone’s brains. A few of the younger audience members fall under the assault, eyes bleeding, but not as many as last time. Hguth and Bxwec are getting better at this.

The lights go down even further as Devorar Al Nino strides down the ramp, tearing the heads and limbs from (conjured) babies. Craig watches the blood dissipate into red gold glitter, showering the audience members closest to the ramp. A skull wrapped in a ninja mask flickers on their shirt while spotlights flash off the same design on their mask.

There’s a brief pause while Devorar enters the ring and shakes the remaining ‘blood’ from themself, continuing to draw attention while their opponent finishes his preparations.

Rí Uafáis nods at Mustard Seed before flinging back the fake tentacles attached to his mask and stretching out the wing-cape attached to his neck and wrists. It is so very human, body paint and fabric failing to match what even a child could do with a glamour, but that is Ri’s gimmick.

It works too, nearly a quarter of the crowd booing him as he makes his entrance. Craig can feel House perk up at noise-- he/she/it has a soft spot for humans, always has-- before settling back down, a renewed sense of watchfulness on the match. Briefly, Craig hopes all the humans were out before House noticed the event, there have been… incidents… before when House forgets to be a House.

Ri and Devorar continue their performances while they strip down to the bare essentials. The tentacles and cape are gone, the belt of baby hands and bloodstained vest carefully handed over to assistants while Mustard Seed continues his duties.

Eventually, they’re ready and the fight begins.

**Author's Note:**

> Like eldritch beings? Have [Swimming in a Fishbowl](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12663276). I don't really have anything else that's like this at all... [frowns] uh... Bobby and Rufus shenanigans: [Outside?!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13990584)


End file.
